What Are Your Thoughts?

[gsta13]

I posted this in the betta forum but decided to bring it to the masses. What do you think?

"Kind of a little bit of topic, im not sure if is me just looking at fish more than other animals, but why are fish more prone to illness than say a dog or cat? Is it because we keep them in well enough conditions as we keep other pets? This is in no way a dig at the o.p i myself am havingproblems with some bacterial infections ATM. It just seems to me that a partof fish keeping is knowing eventually that your goin to get sick fish... be it your fault or the place you bought your fish from fault ... and it sucks.
Hope everything goes ok mate let us know.
Greg"

Greg

 

[jayjay]

Well you don't have to suffer from disease, if we did everything perfectly we could avoid it. Huge tanks, lots of water changes, UV filters, good quality diet, only one fish, which you treated for internal parasites etc. with no external problems.

Or get a shark immune to disease.

 

[ox5477]

well i wouldn't signal out fish as an animal that is sick all the time. As long as you keep constant conditions without adding new fish all the time then there should be no reason your fish shouldn't stay healthy. Since a slight case of ich since when I got him, my jd has been healthy for over 8 monthes now. and since then, the only illness I had was a slight bacterial infection in my smallest bala. So it can be easy to keep your fish as healthy as you other pets, just as jayjay said, depends on your stocking (whther over stocked/lightly stocked or inbetween) and the diet you feed to your fish.

And believe me, I've known plenty of people and me myself who have owned many cats and dogs with numerous health problems, so its just a part of life for all living creatures (except for sharks of course jayjay ) things naturally get sick, thats how it works i guess.

 

[nukeonekitty]

My dog has all kinds of things wrong with him (ear infections, throat problems, teeth things)... fish may be more prone to illness because they are the only animal that has an environment that is very easy to pollute. Think if some toxic gas was released when we are outside, it would have little to no effect to us because the gas can go every which way. In an aquarium, the first are trapped in a glass box that doesn't let any foreign toxins out as well as the fact they are swimming in poop and pee...

 

[Bozza]

The only disease ive ever had in my 5ish yrs of keeping fish was due to a sick fish i had introduced into the tank with white spot. Other then that ive never had a fish get sick or have a problem. All my new fish will be gettin quarantinedin future. My 2cents


Torrens

 

[InaneCathode]

I've actually thought about this myself.
I think of it like this:
You keep a dog in essentially a ba-freakin-zillion gallon tank of air. He doesnt have to worry about air temperature that much, wallowing in his own excrement, lack of oxygen, etc.
If you tried to keep a dog in a giant sealed tank you'd have problems too

 

[The-Wolf]

the main difference in keeping fish and keeping other pets such as cats & dogs etc is
you are not just keeping the fish, you are trying to sustain an entire eco-system.
this is where things can and do go wrong

 

[George Farmer]

As Wolf says, looking after water is the key. It's a classic fishkeeping phrase, "We are not fishkeepers but keepers of water".

A dog will let you know when its hungry or wants walking etc. A fish will often not let you know until it's too late i.e. disease.

FYI since keeping heavily planted tanks I've never had a diseased fish. My dog on the other hand costs me over £50 a month in medication.....

 

[lozronz]

Because we need the same environment as our pet mammals to survive, we would notce if the environment became unsuitable for a dog or a cat because it would also become unsuitable for us.

Our watery friends however have to live in an environment we create without having first hand knowlege of and don't have to live in... If we ever decide to grow gills and inhabit lakes we will probably find ourselves much more profficient fish keepers!